Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This story is mine. Kind reviews welcome!

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Chapter Ten: Thawing the Ice

"Bring me some of those vines over there."

"These?"

"Yeah, the thicker ones."

Sora's pulse was a relentless throbbing against his temples, almost warping his hearing. Consciousness was slow to drag Sora out of the darkness of oblivion. No sooner did Sora re-surface than he wanted nothing more than to crawl back under that blanket of numbness and unawareness. The wind roaring all around and the hammering pain in his leg didn't help to quell the awakening.

His leg was being poked and prodded and it was still painful. Sora groaned and fought a fresh bout of nausea.

"Is he waking up?"

"Sora, hey, you coming around?"

Sora turned his head away from the voice, "No." He mumbled.

"Well, humor has to be a good sign." Riku said.

From the location of the voice, Sora placed Riku to be the one messing with his leg. The wind was howling through the cracks in the cave ceiling, sending a high whistling shriek overhead. Under that noise, someone, probably Kairi, was scratching at the wall feverishly. Riku kept putting pressure on Sora's leg and it wasn't comfortable.

"Stop it." Sora moaned, trying to roll away.

A hand grabbed his shoulder, holding him fast, "Ah, ah. Hold still. I'm almost done."

"Is this enough?" Kairi suddenly asked, following the sound of something thumping to the floor.

Sora forced his eyes open. It was a swirling mass of color attacking his irises, forcing him to blink repeatedly to adjust. The ceiling was spinning above him and the ground didn't feel so solid anymore.

"Kairi, I'm tying a tourniquet, not weaving a full-body cast."

"…"

"I mean, yes, it's plenty. Thanks."

Sora's eyes finally adjusted and he focused on the vision above him. Kairi was kneeling over a massive pile of thick vines, biting her lip and frowning at him. Riku was working over Sora's leg, his hands and forearms were all bloody and he was shirtless. Sora had been spread on his back on the dirt floor of the cave. He started to lift his head to see what Riku was doing.

Kairi dropped to her knees beside him, "How are you feeling?"

Sora swallowed to clear his throat, "Fantastic." His voice dripped sarcasm.

"Okay, I need you to hold still." Riku said.

Sora started to retort, but realized his whole body was trembling, jostling his limbs to and fro. "I can't help it."

"Well try to." Riku quipped.

"Hey, let's split your leg open and see how still you can be!" Sora reproached.

Riku sat up and glared, "Look, if you keep moving you'll start bleeding again."

"Do you even know how to make a tourniquet?"

"I learned in Health class. This will have to do."

"Oh, well I feel better."

Kairi scoffed in exasperation, "Will you two please just shut up?!"

Both boys fell quiet, looking at her.

Kairi pushed her soaked hair from her face, "We're stuck in a cave on a tiny island in the middle of a hurricane! YOUR bone is showing and YOUR elbow is gashed open! The storm could have killed us and may still kill us and you two can't even be civil to each other. Gah, I've had it up to here."

Sora and Riku exchanged looks.

"Someone needs to learn to control their anger." Riku muttered with a smirk.

Kairi gave him a swift smack to the back of the head, "Honestly."

Sora averted his eyes. Riku turned his attention back to his hands.

Kairi sat back, "Can you two just play nice until this is over?"

Sora rotated his shoulders in the dirt, "I will if he does."

Riku snorted, "Fine."

"Fine." Sora immediately retorted.

Kairi rolled her eyes, "Fine."

Riku started untangling one of the vines from the mother mass.

Sora arched his neck and shifted his shoulders again, "Can—Kairi, can you help me sit up?"

Kairi blinked, "Why?"

Sora replied, "So I can see what he's doing."

Riku made an indignant scoffing noise, but didn't look up as he pulled out three feet of vines.

Kairi tilted her head for a moment, "Sure, I guess it'd be okay."

Riku held Sora's leg still while Kairi helped Sora maneuver into an upright position, propping him against a rock so he could lean back. A wave of vertigo overtook him for a moment, but he recovered quickly enough. His eyes fell on his leg, and the nausea returned with a vengeance.

Blood covered every inch of skin from his thigh to half way down his knee, dribbling into a red pool in the dirt. Riku's hands and forearms were stained red from stopping the bleeding, and from his own wound on his elbow, which was dry and no longer bleeding either. The bone was no longer showing through Sora's skin. That had to be good, right? Instead, Riku was tying an already sodden cloth over the wound, knotting the vines to hold the makeshift bandage in place.

Queasy at the sight, Sora tilted his head back against the rock. "So…how long was I out?"

Kairi sat on her knees beside Riku, closer to Sora's arm. "You passed out right after Riku set you down. You were only out for about ten minutes. Don't scare us like that!" She slapped lightly at Sora's arm.

Riku leaned back, running his palms and forearms down the thighs of his pants to rid them of the wet blood. Half of it was dry by now and stained on his skin. "That should do it." He said, pushing his bangs from his eyes. At the same time, a shiver trembled through his shoulders.

Sora shifted minimally, "Dude, what happened to your shirt?"

Riku just snorted, "Well, Kairi wouldn't offer hers and we had to stop the bleeding somehow."

Sora looked down at the cloth wrapped tightly around his leg. "Oh…" He averted his gaze.

All three of them were soaked to bone and the air in the cave was dank and chilly. Now that he realized that, he could see goosebumps prickling Kairi's arms. The gravity of the situation truly settled on Sora for the first time.

"Oh no. This is all my fault." Sora groaned, pressing the heels of his hands over his eyes.

"Sora…" Kairi offered.

"Yeah it is." Riku chirped.

Sora looked up sharply, "You don't have to agree with me."

Riku shrugged, "Well think about it. YOU came out to the island in the middle of a bad storm. YOU refused to come back when we had a chance. YOU ducked into that hut instead of the cave—"

"Hey, I was just following Kairi that time." Sora put in.

Kairi rolled her eyes, "You two are unbelievable."

Sora dropped his eyes to his hands, "Sorry, guys."

Riku waved a hand, "You don't get to apologize yet. Once we all get out of this alive, then MAYBE I'll let you apologize…many times…for a while…" He smirked.

Sora settled for sticking his tongue out at him.

Kairi exhaled in exasperation and leaned back, "Your elbow looks bad, Riku."

"Ah." Riku waved her off too. He rolled his neck to settle another chill that Sora noticed.

Kairi saw it too, "Are you sure you're okay? You don't look very good."

"That's just his face." Sora muttered.

Kairi shot him a glare and he lifted his hands, "What? He can get away with snide comments, but I can't?"

Riku quirked an eyebrow, "I'm sure I have no idea what you mean by 'snide'?"

Sora folded his arms, "Ah, phooey on you."

Riku chuckled and shivered again. Kairi looked at him anxiously and he laughed. "Really, I'm okay. If it gets too cold, I could just weave a sweater or something." He nodded to the ten pound mass of vines with a smirk.

Kairi hugged her knees to her chest, "I just wish this storm would blow over already."

The wind howling through the crevasses in the rocks overhead rose to a dull roar, silencing the trio for a good ten minutes. It sounded as though the worst of the storm had passed. Now they were just battling against the train of the hurricane. Thunder still rattled the walls occasionally, but at least it didn't sound like the cave was going to collapse on them now.

Soon a brief reprieve brought a relative calm to the air, and a trepid silence settled outside. Sora thought he could almost hear the choppy waves beating senselessly against the shore. He started to wonder how the main land had faired. Had the hurricane done a lot of damage there? What about his parents? Kairi's parents? Riku's parents? Their friends from school? A mental image of Trent being blown around in a cyclone ballooned in his imagination and for once he found no humor in the sight.

The silence was shattered by Riku snorting into his fist.

"What could possibly be funny?" Sora said.

Riku grinned, "You said 'phooey'."

Sora blinked, "So?"

Riku sat back, "Who says that? Nobody says 'phooey' anymore. That's like fourth grade-speak."

Sora frowned, "Shut up."

Riku made a serious face, "Are mad at me?" He asked mockingly, "Ah phooey!" He slapped his knee as he said it and laughed genuinely.

Sora narrowed his eyes, but a grin was tugging at his lips too. "Stop it."

Riku swallowed a smile, "What? You gonna throw phooey at me again?"

Kairi looked between the two as though they were crazy, but apparently decided not to interrupt whatever episode the boys were having. The chuckles faded after a minute. The moment passed. They sombered again.

"Sorry I'm an idiot." Sora said suddenly.

"Sorry I was a jerk." Riku replied without meeting Sora's eyes.

"Sorry I teepeed your house."

"Sorry I stuffed a badger in your locker."

"Sorry I ruined your mom's paintjob on her car."

"Sorry you're an idiot."

Sora clenched his jaw on the last remark and sighed, looking at the bandage job on his leg. "For the record, I don't hate you."

Riku snorted, "I don't hate you either."

Kairi threw up her hands, "Boys are so weird!"

Riku and Sora exchanged looks. Riku chuckled, "Ah, phooey."